Collins wins second straight overall title in SCORE San Felipe 250

SAN FELIPE, Mexico — Second-generation veteran Las Vegas desert racer Brian Collins roared through the rugged trails and washes of Mexico’s Baja California desert Saturday, earning his second straight overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck victory in the No. 12 Collins Motorsports Mopar Dodge Ram1500 at the 23rd Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 desert race.

Round 2 of the 2009 SCORE Desert Series was held in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico, along the shores of the picturesque Sea of Cortez.

Setting a blistering pace right from the start in San Felipe and driving solo, he covered the sandy, silty, rocky and dusty 232.4-mile course in just three hours, 47 minutes, 49 seconds, averaging a stellar 61.21 miles per hour.

Overpowering a strong field of 226 desert racers and mastering the race course with blazing speed and power, Collins’ time beat not only the cars and trucks, but also the motorcycles and ATVs that competed in the popular ‘spring break’ event to earn his fifth class win in San Felipe including his third overall triumph and his sixth career SCORE Trophy-Truck race win in the 15-plus year history of SCORE’s marquee racing division for high-tech, 800-horsepower, unlimited production trucks.

It was also just the second time since 1979 that a Dodge-powered vehicle won a SCORE race.

Finishing second overall and in SCORE Trophy-Truck in the elapsed-time race, 11 minutes and 31 seconds behind the masterful Collins was NASCAR Cup team owner/driver Robby Gordon, Charlotte, N.C., who finished Saturday’s race in 3:59:20, averaging 58.26mph in the No. 77 Team Gordon Chevy CK1500.

Finishing third overall while winning the unlimited Class 1 in Round 2 of the five-race 2009 SCORE Desert Series were brothers Ronny and Rick Wilson, Long Beach, Calif., with a time of 4:05:43 and an average speed of 56.75mph in the Wilson Motorsports Chevy-powered Jimco open-wheeled desert race car.

The 226 starters from 17 States, 10 countries competed in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, truck, motorcycles and ATVs. The dramatic 232.4-mile course covered three of the legendary, picturesque and treacherous Baja washes: Matomi, Azufre and Huatomote before heading back to the finish line in the shadow of the landmark San Felipe Arches. The race featured the 14th-largest number of starters in the 23-year history of the event. A total of 162 adventurers completed the rugged course within the 10-hour time limit for an extremely high 71.7 percent finishing percentage.

“It was just a perfect day, our BFGoodrich Tires kept us totally in the game all day long and we covered a brutally-rough course with absolutely no flats,” said the happy Collins at the finish line. “B.J. Baldwin was physically ahead until he broke down at race mile 190, but we had him covered on corrected time all day. The Dodge truck was absolutely awesome. Billy (Goerke, my navigator) did a great job because if you would have asked me earlier today if we were going to win, I would have said ‘I don’t know, it’s going to be a long day’.”

Collins had plenty to say at the finish, adding “But I put a plan together, being patient, and I told Billy that’s what we were going to do and he monitored my speed all the time down the real rough sections so we didn’t have a flat or hurt our shocks and we just had a great day. It’s nice when you put a plan together and it works. There are a lot of places you can go race in the desert, but there is nothing anywhere in the world that comes even remotely close to these unforgettable SCORE Baja races we get to experience three times a year.”

Winning the overall Motorcycle and Class 22 title was the talented team of Kendall Norman, Santa Barbara Calif., and Tim Weigand, Santa Clarita, Calif., on a Johnny Campbell Racing Honda CRF450X. Finishing fifth among all vehicles, the pair crossed the finish line in 4:09:27 with an average speed of 55.90mph. It was Norman’s third overall win in this race in the last four years and Weigand’s first as the pair defeated a group of 69 motorcycles that took the green flag. Norman started the race and rode to race mile 30, Weigand rode the section from race mile 30 to 166.9 and Norman brought it to the finish line from race mile 166.9.

Finishing fourth overall and third in SCORE Trophy-Truck was the team of Mark Post, Laguna Beach, Calif./Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas, who crossed the line 20 minutes, eight seconds behind Collins in the No. 3 Riviera Racing Ford F-150. All four top car and truck finishers completed the course quicker than the top motorcycle team. MacCachren drove the first half of the race and Post the second.

Returning to SCORE desert racing in the first time in over a year, Tim Herbst of Las Vegas drove solo to finish fifth overall among four wheel vehicles and second in Class 1 in the legendary Terrible Herbst Motorsports Smithbuilt-Ford open wheel desert race car. Tim Herbst, whose older brothers Troy and Ed Herbst debuted their new No. 19 Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy-Truck with a seventh-place finish in class, 7:34 behind Class 1 winners Ronny and Rick Wilson.

The world’s best desert racers return to Mexico for Round 3 of the 2009 SCORE Desert Series, June 5-7 for the 41st Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 5000 desert race in Ensenada.

For complete results: www.score-international.com.